Poetry from Daily Life: Springfield's Rex Yba?ez favors simplicity, spontaneity
This week’s guest is Rex Yba?ez, who lives in Springfield, Missouri. He first discovered writing when he was eight years old. Rex writes professionally but his favorite genre is poetry. A project that he has especially enjoyed working on since 2017 is poetry outreach in the local arts community of Springfield. One unique fact about Rex Yba?ez is that he grew up in choir all throughout grade school and didn’t start singing publicly until joining two local bands in Springfield — Death Jackets and Unessential Jane. ~ David L. Harrison
Two approaches to writing poetry
My introduction to writing was through the art of short stories. My heroes were Poe, Bradbury, and Chekhov. Growing up in a small town, it wasn't until high school that I discovered poetry by the Romantics, which inspired me to write poetry seriously.
When I committed to weekly workshops in college, I was informed better about what poetry looked like through modern times. I also began finding more poetry written by people of color: Ones I recommend are Solmaz Sharif, Gregory Pardlo, Paul Tran, Sandra Lim, Vijay Seshadri, Major Jackson, Threa Almontaser, Kaveh Akbar, Tomás Q. Morín, and Yusef Komunyakaa.
I have two approaches to writing. The first way is through working with a word or a line — a quote, a phrase uttered in public, or a passage in a book — and drafting out a poem until it breathes on its own. The other approach is romantic spontaneity.
With time constraints these days, I rely on the latter. Being in the moment can quite literally clear the mind of unwanted and unnecessary negative thoughts and replace them with more constructive thinking. A lot of my poems anymore come off the cuff yet, with years of practice, the intention of word choice is stronger. Though simplicity might be key to any great poem — this poem was placed in my alma mater's anthology in 2011.
The Yellow Umbrella
She keeps a yellow umbrella
a gold parabola
mellowed
like the billowing of fire
as she twirls her frilly energy
left & right
°
She takes out
her parasol tonight
to keep the sun
°
She will bring it
tomorrow
to melt the snow
???
Rex Yba?ez is the University Writer/Editor at Drury University. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, 2020 Moon City Press Poetry Award finalist, and 2021 Steel Toe Books Poetry Contest longlist mention, his work is found in Half Mystic, Noctua Review, Prism Review, Doubly Mad, Interim, AAWW's The Margins, and more. You may follow him at @theliteraryalchemist on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Poetry from Daily Life: Let simplicity, spontaneity be your guide